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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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If Goldin (or her work) doesn’t appeal to you, well, a good deal of this movie won’t either. Then again, if her style of activist/artist hits a sweet spot, then All the Beauty and the Bloodshed may strike you as both eye opening and admirably outraged.
Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Aftersun
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It’s a very personal piece and much about it is more mystifying than revelatory. Still, the leads are magnificent together. If nothing else, Aftersun will make you think about your relationship with your own father.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Empire of Light
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Empire of Light has too much going for it to be a bad film. But it is, at times, a disappointing one.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Your Place or Mine
(2023)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Your Place or Mine may not qualify as a find, but it’s agreeable and affectionate and these days, that counts for a lot.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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The Menu
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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As horror-satire goes, The Menu isn’t especially sophisticated. And true foodies can probably poke holes in every course. But in its own insistently odd way, the film is a good deal of palate-cleansing fun.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
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White Noise
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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[Baumbach has] taken a respectable swing at it, and the result is 2/3rds of a very good movie.
Posted Jan 18, 2023
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Glass Onion is either too smart or too lazy; I’m not sure which.
Posted Jan 09, 2023
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The Son
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The Son is family dysfunction done right, a piece that understands that collateral damage is, nonetheless, still damage and moving on doesn’t always mean leaving pain behind.
Posted Dec 16, 2022
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The Wonder
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The sizable wonder at the center of The Wonder is its star, Florence Pugh. Her perfectly-pitched performance holds together a film that often feels like a horror movie while flirting with questions of faith and the nature of miracles.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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She’s certainly not a clueless do-gooder, but she can come close – like those well-meaning Hollywood wives who once organized aerobics classes for the homeless.
Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Ticket to Paradise
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Sometimes frothy is only so much foam.
Posted Nov 28, 2022
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See How They Run
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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If you have a soft spot for period whodunits, then you may have some fun with this stylish, well-cast piece that mostly comes off as an appetizer for The Glass Onion.
Posted Nov 10, 2022
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The Good Nurse
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Watchable as it is, The Good Nurse is a tad flat, a bit unsatisfying.
Posted Nov 03, 2022
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The Good House
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The Good House isn’t a great movie but until its overly melodramatic final 10 or so minutes, it’s a pretty darn good one.
Posted Oct 26, 2022
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Sidney
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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You leave Sidney feeling frankly uplifted. His balancing act has never been equaled -- and has yet to be fully explored. At least this documentary is a good start.
Posted Oct 20, 2022
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Catherine Called Birdy
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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If it weren’t for Ramsey and Sophie Okonedo, in the small but hilarious role of an offbeat wealthy widow, the picture would be borderline unwatchable.
Posted Oct 12, 2022
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Blonde
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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A showy exercise in exploitation and salacious story-telling.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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Three Thousand Years of Longing
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Miller is now in his late 70s, and the fact that he can pull off anything like this -- or almost pull it off -- is pretty darn impressive. Your enjoyment, I guess, is just how far you’re willing to go on a flawed magic carpet ride.
Posted Sep 23, 2022
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Where the Crawdads Sing
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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I guess it could be called a romance thriller courtroom drama. I had a few other names for it, but that doesn’t really matter. Let’s just say the movie didn’t make me mad. It didn’t make me much of anything.
Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Nope
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Despite some ingenious touches and a nod or two to the history of movie-making, Peele’s third movie is an incoherent, chaotic disappointment.
Posted Sep 08, 2022
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Vengeance
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It’s a fish-out-of-water tale with an expertly hooked fish and unexpectedly dark (but still comic) waters.
Posted Aug 31, 2022
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Elvis
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Luhrmann’s biofilm is more like an Elvis impersonator -- bloated and bejeweled, barely skimming the surface of one of the most original entertainers who ever lived.
Posted Aug 17, 2022
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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A nauseatingly time-warped film about how the right fancy dress can change your life.
Posted Aug 11, 2022
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Benediction
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Davies does some interesting things with WWI documentary footage, and he gets strong performances from his cast. But it’s difficult to get inside his Sassoon, to feel his anti-war passion or his pain as a gay man in an unforgiving culture.
Posted Aug 03, 2022
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Bitterbrush
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Understated yet oddly mesmerizing.
Posted Jul 08, 2022
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Downton Abbey: A New Era
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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True, the non-fan may still have trouble sorting everyone out and may not be as enamored of the sillier moments. But A New Era does its job and does it well.
Posted Jun 24, 2022
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Everything Everywhere All at Once
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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After maybe, 10-15 minutes of normal stuff -- taxes, laundry, family tensions -- this movie takes off into some of the most imaginative and just plain what-tha’-??????? territory you’ve ever seen.
Posted Jun 23, 2022
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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Secrets is overpopulated and underwritten. Oh, there’s plenty of plot, but it comes at us in so many bits and pieces that nothing hangs together.
Posted Jun 09, 2022
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Operation Mincemeat
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It’s dutiful, steely-eyed and, alas, just a bit dull.
Posted May 25, 2022
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The Lost City
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Formula done right is one reason the lightweight romantic romp, The Lost City, works. Another is the unassuming, easy-going chemistry between its two leads, Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
Posted May 20, 2022
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Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The picture is always entertaining, but it seems ever so slightly subdued.
Posted May 12, 2022
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Jockey
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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t holds us. Partly through its lived-in feel -- you can all but smell the hay and manure. And partly through Collins’ wise, intuitive performance. He’s utterly convincing as a slightly over-the-hill jock.
Posted May 04, 2022
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White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Entertaining albeit lightweight.
Posted Apr 27, 2022
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All the Old Knives
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It’s certainly not a waste of time. But it’s also not one of those movies you can’t wait to tell someone else about. You know the feeling.
Posted Apr 21, 2022
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The Outfit
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The Outfit is unimaginable without Rylance. His Leonard is a model of precision. Like a perfect gentleman’s valet, he is rigorous and polite, unfailingly observant, and beguilingly obsequious -- as scrupulous with people as he is with fabric.
Posted Apr 14, 2022
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Parallel Mothers
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It is pure Pedro Almodovar -- bold, brilliant and, on occasion, exuberantly bonkers.
Posted Mar 05, 2022
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Nightmare Alley
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Given del Toro’s reputation for handling the macabre, Nightmare Alley should add up to something a great deal more disturbing than it does.
Posted Feb 10, 2022
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The 355
(2022)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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It’s the sort of thing best enjoyed with some snarky friends and a couple of bottles of wine.
Posted Feb 04, 2022
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Shot in haunting black-and-white, The Tragedy of Macbeth begins slowly, even hesitantly, but steadily accrues power as it goes along.
Posted Jan 28, 2022
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The Lost Daughter
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Let's just cut to the chase. The Lost Daughter is the don't-miss movie of 2021.
Posted Dec 30, 2021
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Belfast
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Kenneth Branagh has bathed his memory film "Belfast" in a nostalgic patina of black-and white. Alas, that's not enough to give his heartfelt picture the emotional heft he intends.
Posted Dec 17, 2021
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The Power of the Dog
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The Power of the Dog has an elemental grandeur more suited to its setting than its psychology. But that's the sort of filmmaker Campion is. A master of mood and manipulation, she demands we see the forest and the trees.
Posted Dec 10, 2021
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Mass
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Kudos to Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney and Jason Isaacs, but this is not the stuff that movie careers - or memorable movies - are made of.
Posted Dec 04, 2021
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King Richard
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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...its aim is true. And so is its heart.
Posted Dec 04, 2021
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Spencer
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Kristen Stewart, an actor I genuinely admire, struggles mightily with the role, and ends up somewhere in between an interesting impersonation and a 5th-grader's notion of a madwoman.
Posted Dec 04, 2021
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Tick, Tick... Boom!
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Simply put, the film is a love letter - to Larson, to New York, to a life in the theater.
Posted Nov 24, 2021
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No Time to Die
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Mr. Craig... thank you for your service. Mr. Bond... see you again soon.
Posted Nov 18, 2021
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The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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The movie is like an overdone Victorian dollhouse, exquisitely clear about such domestic obsessions as wallpaper and china patterns, frustratingly obscure about just who Wain was and why we should care.
Posted Nov 13, 2021
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The Capote Tapes
(2020)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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Intentionally or not, the film is also very much a meditation on the sheer unlikeliness of Capote's celebrity.
Posted Nov 04, 2021
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Dune
(2021)
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Eleanor Ringel Cater
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While Villeneuve has a firm grasp on Dune's mythic elements, he's less assured when it comes to things like characterization. He doesn't give his cast much breathing room, and it's to their credit that the actors find as many moments as they do.
Posted Oct 28, 2021
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